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Calling All 800s!


ClausB

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  • 2 months later...

Here's what's on the bottom of my new to me 800, just got this 3-4 days ago. The sticker has been tapped on.

 

AW 303469

Atari / 082

 

Haven't had it open yet other than to take the lid/door off. The ROM (CX801) and RAM (CX853 x3) are in the plastic cases and "? PEEK(58383) returns 56 so Rev .A of the OS.

 

 

 

bL3u6M6l.jpg

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I meant to post this but totally forgot. I picked up this 800 for a song locally a few weeks back. It appears to be a late-production stock 48K machine. Good physical condition despite the wear to the label and works great.

 

post-30400-0-72099500-1498694315_thumb.jpg

 

post-30400-0-91190300-1498694326_thumb.jpg

 

It also came with this bitchin' vintage vinyl cover. :)

 

post-30400-0-43666800-1498694362_thumb.jpg

 

 

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Was very, very lucky to find one in strinkingly pristine condition... Came with brown-cover (also pristine) and that rare, blue-colored, padded carrying case for the 800 (with a large Atari logo on the outside).

 

This one STILL made on U.S.A., but towards the latter end of that cycle. Has Incognito properly installed, and a stack of spare parts, for years to come (including an extra Incognito, as it is such a CENTRAL and useful piece of HW).

 

VP930b Viewsonic pro-series monitor driven from DVDO iSCAN HD video processor (underneath desk, not shown). The 800 feeds dual [s-video + Composite] signals to iSCAN processor, which it handles and process separately, but allowing you to switch (in real-time) from s-video to composite with one button on the iScan. Super nice for artifacted vs. non-artifacted content. Video quality is exceptional considering it was made in 1982 (!)

 

Cheers!

 

 

post-29379-0-15345600-1498833602_thumb.jpg post-29379-0-02724200-1498833612_thumb.jpg post-29379-0-78161300-1498833621_thumb.jpg

Edited by Faicuai
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  • 1 month later...

Was very, very lucky to find one in strinkingly pristine condition... Came with brown-cover (also pristine) and that rare, blue-colored, padded carrying case for the 800 (with a large Atari logo on the outside).

 

This one STILL made on U.S.A., but towards the latter end of that cycle. Has Incognito properly installed, and a stack of spare parts, for years to come (including an extra Incognito, as it is such a CENTRAL and useful piece of HW).

 

VP930b Viewsonic pro-series monitor driven from DVDO iSCAN HD video processor (underneath desk, not shown). The 800 feeds dual [s-video + Composite] signals to iSCAN processor, which it handles and process separately, but allowing you to switch (in real-time) from s-video to composite with one button on the iScan. Super nice for artifacted vs. non-artifacted content. Video quality is exceptional considering it was made in 1982 (!)

 

Cheers!

 

 

attachicon.gifA800-1.jpg attachicon.gifA800-2.jpg attachicon.gifA800-3.jpg

 

That picture with the 800 and two Indus drives is almost perfect. The LCD ruins it.

 

I'll dig up my 800 PAL and let know the details...

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Hmmmm, I checked out all the other machines listed here but it looks like this is the first one from Hong Kong (Atari-Wong) posted ?

 

Also, not sure how the date code is "formatted" at least different from the other PAL machines.

 

I assume it's from 1983 ? That would make it one of the last one's I guess ? Because the 600 XL and 800 XL were launched in 1983 as well AFAIK. Were the 600 and 800 XL also built by "Atari-Wong" ?

Interesting....

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I also have an Atari Wong 800, an NTSC model manufactured about 2 weeks after Level42's PAL 800.

 

I got it as part of a large lot, it has the expected 48K RAM but also has an Omnimon paddle board plugged into the OS card.

The wires go to switches on the back edge of the top cover

 

post-26063-0-78180800-1502142577_thumb.jpg

 

post-26063-0-03711100-1502140755_thumb.jpg

 

The initial 83A would seem to be the code for the Atari Wong plant in Hong Kong, 83S would indicate the US(Sunnyvale?) plant.

The AW indicates an NTSC 800, Level42's PAL version is designated CA.

Serial number is 00620, date code 233.

 

I believe the plant code for the following from the list in post #1 is incorrect, and should be 83A instead of 85A, as I don't believe Atari had a third plant making 800s. The serial number is 1031 higher than mine with a date code of 1 week later.

 

85A AW 01651 243 Agent570 24/83

Edited by BillC
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That picture with the 800 and two Indus drives is almost perfect. The LCD ruins it.

 

I'll dig up my 800 PAL and let know the details...

 

Ha!!!

 

I guess the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! ;-)

 

​That's a PRO monitor (LCD) (no speaker, no tuner). It's charcoal-gray (deep) and happens to match pretty closely the Indus' dark-finish.

​Most of the LCD monitors shown here are general-use, low-quality TVs, while the CRTs see here, well, are mostly jokes (e.g. goofy-looking, external color faded, rampant geometric distortion, lack of linearity, poor black-point rendition, and on and on.) They will never show the best our Atari's can produce / render, no matter how much mystical love is professed around these parts.. With the exception, however, of Sony's PVM / PVN broadcast series, which is among the very, very few legacy items that seems worthy of the Atari.

 

In the meantime, I will simply take the longevity, power-savings, space-savings and pro-look of this particular LCD / Video Processor combo over ANY CRT out there, except, as I mentioned, Sony's PVM / PVN Series. It (overall) beats my Sony WEGA CRT display (32").

 

​Cheers!

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It's a nice looking LCD.

 

 

But it's an LCD.

 

That's what's wrong with the picture.

 

It looks completely out of place between those awesome vintage items....but lets not start another LCD/CRT war....just think I'm jealous about you having 2 Indus drives and I have none.... ;) :D

Oh and longevity with LCD.....hahaha....CRT's will last SOOOO much langer....take my word. And Sony PVM is nice, but I'll take a Philips tube over it anyway....especially the one in my Bang & Olufsen MX4000 :D

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That LCD looks good and it has the correct aspect ratio, not like modern wide horribly streched displays.

 

I'm on my second facial skin cancer now. I know I spent much more time sat before a CRT in the 80s and 90s than I spent in the sun, so now I'll take an LCD monitor any day!

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That LCD looks good and it has the correct aspect ratio, not like modern wide horribly streched displays.

 

I'm on my second facial skin cancer now. I know I spent much more time sat before a CRT in the 80s and 90s than I spent in the sun, so now I'll take an LCD monitor any day!

 

Correct, 1.25:1 ratio, which needs to be set at the DVDO Video Processor (exactly). Not 4:3, 16:9, none of that.

 

Last but most importantly, my very best and positive wishes for you, Claus. Hope you recover, fully.

 

Keep up the great stuff we enjoy reading from... Cheers!

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That LCD looks good and it has the correct aspect ratio, not like modern wide horribly streched displays.

 

I'm on my second facial skin cancer now. I know I spent much more time sat before a CRT in the 80s and 90s than I spent in the sun, so now I'll take an LCD monitor any day!

 

Yikes that doesn't sound great, all the best for you !

 

But skin cancer from the sun is caused by the ultraviolet light that is contained in sunlight, not by radioactivity which is something completely different.

 

Even so, modern CRT's (from about the mid 70's) contain excellent protection (lead) for any X-rays (should they be transmitted). Only when the HV is overdriven a great deal will a CRT start emitting some X-rays but all TVs and monitors

from about that time contain protection circuits to prevent that from happening. Remember there is also natural radiation around us every day. I guess taking a single (commercial airliner) flight will expose you to more radiation than watching TV on a CRT for a year.

 

Now back on topic :)

 

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I also have an Atari Wong 800, an NTSC model manufactured about 2 weeks after Level42's PAL 800.

 

I got it as part of a large lot, it has the expected 48K RAM but also has an Omnimon paddle board plugged into the OS card.

The wires go to switches on the back edge of the top cover

 

attachicon.gif83A.AW.00620.233.jpg

 

attachicon.gif83A.AW.00620.233-label.jpg

 

The initial 83A would seem to be the code for the Atari Wong plant in Hong Kong, 83S would indicate the US(Sunnyvale?) plant.

The AW indicates an NTSC 800, Level42's PAL version is designated CA.

Serial number is 00620, date code 233.

 

I believe the plant code for the following from the list in post #1 is incorrect, and should be 83A instead of 85A, as I don't believe Atari had a third plant making 800s. The serial number is 1031 higher than mine with a date code of 1 week later.

 

85A AW 01651 243 Agent570 24/83

 

So if I understand correctly the first 83 is not an indication of the production year ? And the date codes is XXY where XX is week number and Y is the last number of the year.

 

Indeed both the NTSC and PAL models from Wong have the same label which is a bit funny as FCC regulations mean absolutely nothing in Europe :D

 

Would still like to see that complete label of the other PAL unit mentioned. The numbering is quite different though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all.

 

I'm trying to nail down when I got my first Atari computer. It was an original Atari 800. My parents bought it for me for my birthday. They cannot remember when. They think it was when I turned 13, which would have been January 1980.

 

I have some clues that I think can help narrow it down.

 

Clues:

  1. It had 48K of RAM pre-populated, but the RAM and ROM chips were all cased and it had the thumb levers so I could open that compartment. (It was not screwed closed)
  2. There was a sticker on the box that touted the fact that it came with 48K of RAM now.
  3. The salesperson told my parents that when Atari bumped them to 48K of RAM, they stopped including BASIC, but because this computer was produced right when that started, it still had BASIC included. (Assuming the salesperson was telling my parents the truth.)

So, is January of 1980 a reasonable timeframe for a computer of this configuration to be on sale?

 

Thanks to anyone for any information they can share.

 

Todd

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